Man, I am now deeply obsessed with this linear-dependent-function-space problem, and it is hard to stop from continuing to hack on it into the wee hours of the morning, because it keeps looking like I'm making substantial progress towards actually finding a decent solution for it. I fear for my wife of, say, twenty years hence, leaving me because I spend all of time with that most unchaste of mistresses, TeX. Well, I separately fear that it will still be TeX that we're all using in twenty years. But mostly I fear that the sort of scenarios theadana so suggestively paints in preceding comments will not come about because as soon as that unmistakably sublime supernova of clarity hits me, ain't no quantity nor quality of lithe and willing bedfellows goin' keep me from my math.